Advocacy in Action - International AIDS Society

ACTIVITY
2.8 Objective: By the end of this session
participants will be able to decide how to
monitor and evaluate their advocacy work
during and after its implementation
Section 2.8 Step 8: Implement, monitor and evaluate
Introduction
• This is the step where the planning stops and the action begins – when we implement
advocacy activities such as those we have practised during the skills sessions or other
advocacy methods.
• Implementation is also a time of learning; when we can learn whether the methods selected
are having their intended impact. We do this through:
♦ monitoring of activities
♦ evaluation of results.
• Monitoring and evaluation will be much easier if we have developed a clear aim and
objectives in Step 3, stating clearly what we are trying to achieve.
• When evaluating, we need to agree on our definitions of success, i.e., agree on the signs
that will show us whether the situation is improving or not – these signs are indicators.
• The people affected by the problem or issue are often the best people to choose indicators
of success.
• Advocacy work can be difficult to monitor and evaluate:
♦ Many organisations may be working to achieve similar aims or objectives via different
means, so it is hard to determine the impact that your work has had
♦ Organisations are often uncertain at which level to evaluate their advocacy work – at the
♦
level of the target (activities or objectives) or at the level of intended project impact (aim)?
Advocacy is a gradual process, and thus it can often be difficult to monitor the many
small steps needed towards achievement of success.
• Nevertheless, monitoring and evaluation is critical for determining if your advocacy work
has succeeded in removing barriers for change.
• Although there are many reasons for monitoring and evaluating advocacy work – like all
monitoring and evaluation – the information is only useful if it is used. Many organisations
spend a great deal of time and resources monitoring their work without actually carrying out
any evaluation. Similarly, evaluations need to be studied to draw out conclusions and they
need to be a valued part of the process to be worthwhile.
Instructions Timing: 1 hour 30 minutes (plus one hour for whole group discussion)
1 Explain the objective of the step and the activity.
2 Working with all the participants, ask the following question:
? Is it important to monitor and evaluate in advocacy work? If so, why?
3 Ask the groups to write some indicators (descriptions of the evidence required, or
definitions of success) that would demonstrate whether their advocacy objective(s) were
being met. This can be done by adding a column of indicators for each specific activity in
their action plan from Step 7, as well as for the objective(s) as a whole. Before participants
go to their groups, ask them:
? How do objectives help us to write impact indicators?
Distribute the Handout 7, ‘Methods of monitoring and evaluating advocacy work’, from the
end of this section, to provide participants with further information.
4 Once this activity is completed, ask the groups to choose some methods for monitoring the
indicators for their advocacy work, and write these below their indicators. Once again, the
Handout 7 will be helpful in providing ideas.
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